


all roads lead to you

by hiraethia



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Falling In Love, Gen, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Zuko (Avatar), Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, going to a rainbow car wash with your best friend is something that can be so personal, waxing poetic about your friend who you're in love with
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:26:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27544564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiraethia/pseuds/hiraethia
Summary: His friend’s face was glowing as he stared up at the roof of the car with the softest smile. He looked like he was born in color, and had lived and breathed it ever since. Watery light danced across his cheeks, flickering across the bridge of his nose like he was the sky itself.He had no right to look so magical just then.And something in Zuko’s chest either broke or mended itself, because he’d never seen the aurora before, but he imagined it looked a little like this.OR,zuko falls in love with sokka, sokka falls in love with zuko, a rainbow car wash gets involved. it’s more or less in that order.
Relationships: Sokka & Zuko, Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 118
Kudos: 454





	all roads lead to you

**Author's Note:**

> a love letter to best friends, car washes, and rainbow soap <3

“So, these enemy birds shat all over my car,” was the first thing Sokka said to him when he picked up the phone.

Zuko frowned. “Enemy birds?”

“Did you miss the part where they shat all over my car?”

“Where were you even - ”

Sokka let out a noise that sounded hysterically similar to a pelican. Not that Zuko was going to say anything about it. 

“I was parked outside of Katara’s internship place to pick her up, right, and I _thought_ it had started raining or something because I heard _impacts_ on my windows. Cue me looking up and seeing a flock of these _birds_ flying by after unloading about fifty times on Foo Foo Car-ddlypoops.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have named your car Foo Foo Car-ddlypoops, then,” Zuko said. 

“ _Zuko_ , you do not get to be funny right now,” Sokka whined, but he didn’t mean it. They both knew by then what their laughs sounded like in their voices. Sokka’s, after all, had been Zuko’s favorite melody for a long time.

“Okay, Sokka, what do you want me to do about it?” he asked patiently, closing his laptop. His college essays hadn’t been writing themselves for the past two (to ten) hours, anyway. 

“Come to the car wash with me. The rainbow one.” 

“The one you always tell me about?”

“Yes,” Sokka sighed. “Please? I’ll buy you boba.”

(Zuko didn’t want to tell him that he never had to bribe him for anything. Where there was Sokka, there was newness and there was greatness and there was a resounding _yes, always, anything_ ). 

((But he didn’t tell him that)). 

“Okay,” he just said, snorting softly at his friend’s jubilant whooping. 

“I’ll pick you up! You better get ready and look pretty. Oh, Katara’s here now.” There was the sound of a car door opening and closing, and muffled voices. “I’ll see you in a bit, okay?”

“Yeah, see you.”

“Katara says hi, by the way.”

“Hi, Katara,” Zuko said. “Your brother’s an idiot.”

He couldn’t hear Katara’s agreement over Sokka’s indignant, “Well then, I love you too.” 

He always said that, but Zuko’s treacherous heart never failed to skip a beat whenever he heard it. Cheeks heating up, he stared down at his desk, the wood chipped and old.

His big stupid crush on Sokka wasn’t really a secret (except to the boy in question, of course). Zuko didn’t really remember when exactly his mushy feelings began transforming into something far bigger, not that that was important. They had always been slow-moving, two planets dancing around each other and never letting go - but somewhere along the line, the feelings had changed. And they weren’t going away.

Most of their friends knew about it but were respectful and just a tad pitying enough to let Zuko wallow in peace. He’d accepted a while ago that they probably weren’t going to get anywhere like _that_ \- and it took a while, but he was okay with it. Even if Sokka didn’t love him back, he still _loved_ him. And being loved by Sokka wasn’t something bitter to swallow, it was something too special to speak about.

So Zuko just bit back a tiny smile, even though there was no one around to tease him about it - Uncle was working that day at their tea shop, anyway - and answered.

“I love you too.”

* * *

“Oh.” 

“Not a word,” Sokka said. Zuko tried stifling a smirk as he took in the damage. It didn’t work.

“That’s rough, buddy.”

“This is humiliating,” Sokka agreed. “Get in.”

Zuko got in.

It was a little car wash station by their local shopping plaza. It had been Sokka’s favorite since he was a kid and his dad took him to swim underneath rainbow soap and artificial rain for the first time. They had pretended they were on a boat and the bubbles were the aurora. Zuko had heard Sokka tell the story a hundred times over, and he enjoyed every single iteration. 

It was his own first time going, though, so he raised his eyebrow when he noticed the line of cars around the block.

“Do you think they all got doxxed by the same flock?” Sokka said, narrowing his eyes as he pulled into the line. 

“Yeah, the government drones doxxed everyone’s cars today,” Zuko said, unbuckling his seat belt to tuck his knees up to his chest, because he was the only person besides Katara and Aang who was allowed to do that. Sokka glared at him, affronted.

“Has Jet indoctrinated you on that conspiracy?” he said. “Enemy birds are still _birds_ , Zuko. There’s no evidence that they are spies sent by the government to watch us. Besides Katara I’ll be the first person to talk trash about the government any day of the week, but I refuse to give anyone up there the credit for being intelligent or bored enough to engineer drones that can shit on cars. The technology that would take is pretty niche - ”

Zuko smiled to himself, letting the sound of Sokka’s voice wash over him. Mission accomplished. 

They’d shifted forward several cars when Sokka paused and took a breath. He reached over and poked Zuko on the shoulder.

“Are you even listening to me?”

He opened his eyes. When had he even closed them? 

“Uh. I shouldn’t believe in Jet’s conspiracy theories.”

“Good job. Hey, did you sleep at all last night?” Sokka suddenly asked.

Zuko blinked. “I might’ve pulled a slight all-nighter,” he admitted after his friend started squinting a little too closely at him.

“Zuko. Please tell me you didn’t stay up to do your essays and that you were playing pai sho with Uncle instead.”

“It’s not my fault I can’t fit my tragic backstory in 650 words,” he grumbled. 

He didn’t mean for it to happen, but Sokka’s eyes hardened for a second - the way they always did when he remembered the warmth they shared had never come easily. 

“No,” Sokka agreed firmly. “It isn’t.”

Zuko sighed, before he reached out and brushed his fingers against Sokka’s knuckles. A silent _it’s okay_.

They’d had this conversation before. A couple months into freshman year, on a night when their losses felt too heavy and the moon too dull. Sokka had slumped against Zuko’s shoulder, tears silently dripping down his face. 

“You can’t protect everyone. You already spread yourself so thin,” Zuko had said to him. 

“Doesn’t mean I can’t try,” Sokka had mumbled back, careful not to accidentally brush up against Zuko’s scar.

(Because that was the thing about Sokka. He would always try, even when the world kept turning and impossibilities kept coming).

((He’d try until the whimpering, disquieting end, if it meant _something_ )).

“I know. I know you will. But you shouldn’t have to try all the time,” Zuko had said. “Let me watch your back too.”

Sokka’s answer, a quiet promise, came hours later. “Okay. We’ll watch each other’s backs.”

He only tugged himself out of his memories when he felt a light touch on his own wrist. He blinked again, and Sokka was already gazing right back at him. 

“We’re almost in,” he said after a long moment. “Maybe the rainbows will wake you up.”

“Okay,” Zuko said. A faint smile flickered across Sokka’s face, the private kind that he only seemed to show around him. He then turned to face the front, fingers tapping rhythms against the steering wheel as Zuko fiddled with the radio and counted the amount of songs it took before they finally got to the front. 

Sokka ended up paying for the most expensive cleaning option possible, skillfully tuning out Zuko’s half-hearted complaints that the fourteen dollars could’ve bought them two and a half milk teas. 

“And who would’ve taken the extra half?” Sokka asked playfully.

“Toph.”

“She’s lactose intolerant.”

“She’s also full of spite.”

“Touché.” 

Sokka hummed along with the radio until it fell silent, before glancing at Zuko out of the corner of his eye.

“You know, Katara said she’s going to try and get her advisor to take Aang as a second intern,” he said.

“Oh?”

“It’s kind of cute, actually. Katara’s researching clean water, and Aang wants to work in land conservation. It works out.”

“Why’s he looking for internships this early?”

“I mean, it’s pretty much his life calling,” Sokka said, a proud sort of gleam in his eyes. “I don’t think there’s an age limit for that.”

“No,” Zuko agreed.

“Mm. It’s weird, though, right? They grow up so fast. Suki’s already getting recruitment offers too, and I’m pretty sure Toph is on her way there.” 

“We’re growing up,” Zuko murmured, glancing out the window. “It happens.”

Sokka’s smile was bittersweet, like the last rays of light before nightfall. “It does. We’re so old now.”

“That’s a little too far.”

“You know what you’re never too old for, though?” 

Rolling his eyes, Zuko asked, “What?”

“A good old fashioned car wash!” Sokka broke into a grin, starting the engine back up as the garage door began to slide back open. His joy was always contagious, and Zuko couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.

The last dregs of untouchable nostalgia were still there, swirling and settling like crushed tea leaves at the bottom of a cup. But the pain was sweeter than the other kinds of hurt Zuko had swallowed long ago, like too-ripe honey and sugar. He could drown in it.

Then Sokka held out his hand dramatically, wiggling his fingers as he began driving forward, and Zuko linked their pinkies together. There weren’t any new promises to make, just old unwritten vows to keep. 

He was perfectly okay with that.

* * *

Zuko didn’t really know what he’d been expecting going into the open bay. He just sat in his seat and watched as the machines next to them began whirring to life, snorting because Sokka was practically vibrating with excitement beside him.

“Where’s the rainbow?” he asked, just to be annoying, only to earn an elbow to the side.

“Would it kill you to be patient for once?”

Leaning his head back, Zuko glanced out the windows, peering into the dimness of the garage. He watched as the mist sprayed by for a couple minutes, fogging up the windows and completely shrouding them. It was surprisingly cozy, sitting there in familiar silence, Sokka’s anticipation enough to light up the entire place.

Then, the colors came.

Zuko couldn’t help but gasp softly when he saw the swirls of orange and lavender soap begin pouring down the sides of the car. It covered every inch of space he could see, completely blotting out the light. 

The natural darkness faded away as if a thunderstorm had rolled in, replaced with something far more brilliant. Because everywhere Zuko looked was stained with it. Deep purples and pinks flooded the car as he reached up and slid open the sunroof to peer through it. Bubbles danced and melted and frothed against the glass, slipping and sliding in a pointless race down the windshield. Zuko could count greens and yellows and roses as they popped up on metal, and a breathless laugh was escaping him before he could hold it back.

“Wow,” he breathed, before glancing back at Sokka. 

And he stopped.

His friend’s face was glowing as he stared up at the roof of the car with the softest smile. He looked like he was born in color, and had lived and breathed it ever since. Watery light danced across his cheeks, flickering across the bridge of his nose like he was the sky itself. 

He had no right to look so magical just then.

And something in Zuko’s chest either broke or mended itself, because he’d never seen the aurora before, but he imagined it looked a little like this. Stunning, ethereal, beautiful. Right there in front of him, everything he couldn’t quite reach. 

But here was one thing. He couldn’t dance with the lights, but he could put his hand out and let it wash over him. Just because he couldn’t have it didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

Here was another thing. A much more important thing.

Zuko loved Sokka. He really did. He loved him more than he cared to kiss him or whatever it was that he craved. It didn’t matter. 

What mattered was that there was no world where Zuko wouldn’t love Sokka. What mattered was that the boy in front of him was here, in his lifetime, and he was Zuko’s best friend who had somehow danced into his orbit and never let go since.

If Zuko never got to kiss him, it wouldn’t matter. Because Sokka was right there anyway. For all the times he could have - probably _should have_ \- left, he hadn’t moved an inch. 

Maybe Zuko didn’t know for how long he’d have Sokka for. They were high school seniors on the cusp of adulthood, after all, tattered childhoods falling away like the last threads of the too-small jacket they were terrified to throw out and even more terrified to keep. All he knew was that every second Sokka spent in his life was a second longer for the sun to chase away the winter chill. All he knew was that he would keep loving Sokka long after the growing pains finally stopped. 

And while he didn’t know at what point he’d somehow made the right choice, out of a thousand mistakes, that led him back to Sokka, back _home_ \- he knew he’d never regret it. 

This - tucked inside Sokka’s desecrated-by-enemy-birds car, elbows touching and breaths caught with wonder - this was enough. It always had been and always would. 

So Zuko let himself lean closer to his best friend, pressing their arms together the way they always did, and glanced up through the sunroof again. A tiny smile quirked at his lips as he watched the bubbles swirl around the (very dirty) glass. Emerald bled into magenta into violet, and it should’ve turned murky, but the colors stained the windows with a vibrancy only the boy right next to him could embody. 

“It smells like bubblegum,” he murmured softly, letting his head drop against Sokka’s shoulder. 

Fishing out his phone, Zuko started filming the watercolors on the window. Uncle would really enjoy it, he thought idly to himself.

Next to him, Sokka was quiet. It wasn’t really anything weird - sometimes it felt like Sokka was larger than life, and other times he fell quiet like the gentle lulls between crashing waves. But his shoulders trembled just slightly, like he was sighing. Zuko could feel the movement in his own bones.

“ _Oh_ ,” Sokka breathed quietly, almost to himself. 

Zuko glanced over, only to meet wide eyes capturing rainbow reflections. Sokka was looking at Zuko with something painful. Like he’d just remembered something he wasn’t supposed to forget - something either tiny enough to have slipped by unnoticed for years, or huge enough to burn the whole world down. He recognized that look - it was the expression Sokka always got when he was on the verge of discovering something great or agonizing. Zuko wasn’t sure why he’d look like that now, though something twisted in his stomach at the sight of it.

They were just sitting in a car wash, watery rainbows cascading down their cheeks. Zuko didn’t know where or how he could have discovered something so gravity-defying in something so small and simple. 

(But if anyone could, a gentle voice whispered, of course it was Sokka).

“Are you okay?” Zuko asked softly, unwilling to break the moment.

Sokka blinked, once, twice, before opening his mouth. His brows furrowed slightly, then he turned away. Zuko wondered if he was blushing, or if it was the pink soap that had just gotten dumped on the windshield.

“I’m okay,” he said hoarsely. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

He didn’t push it. He figured Sokka would tell him on his own time.

Instead, Zuko glanced back out the windows. The water was beginning to come down, washing away dirt and other unnamable items alongside frothy bubbles. 

“It’s pretty,” he said. “I can see why you like this so much.”

“Yeah,” Sokka murmured again. He sounded distracted, but Zuko couldn’t really tell over the sound of water pounding against the walls. 

For ten more minutes, it was just the two of them. Encased in their own colorful world, little and private and good. It sounded like a storm outside, but they were safe.

Zuko traced patterns into the window, the heat of his fingertip leaving behind little imprints on glass. Sokka didn’t look at him, only staring out at the rain like it owed him money. Fourteen dollars, perhaps.

But never once did he move away from Zuko’s side. 

* * *

The sunlight was a harsh contrast to the gentle hues of the garage, but at least the car was as good as new. 

Zuko sank back in the seat, suddenly even more tired than he had been before going into the wash, as Sokka snickered quietly. 

“Stop laughing,” he grumbled as his friend began pulling into the parking lot.

They ended up parking underneath a tree, branches thick and large enough to sufficiently shield them from any other potential enemy bird attacks. Zuko blinked blearily as Sokka turned off the engine and glanced toward him.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“You’re gonna take a nap, and I’m gonna work on Piandao’s project that I kind of procrastinated on.”

He didn’t even bother protesting.

It took a moment of maneuvering, but eventually they clambered into the backseat together, Sokka leaning comfortably against the window and beckoning for Zuko to lie down. They were familiar with the routine by now - one born of many sleepless nights studying and talking.

Closing his eyes, Zuko stretched out lazily and put his head on Sokka’s lap. He hoped he wasn’t blushing too hard when he felt Sokka pat the top of his head, but his heart was steady. He thought he could still see little traces of rainbow soap and bubbles on the back of his eyelids, like tiny nebulae bursting against dusty windows.

This was good. This was enough.

He voiced it, slowly and quietly.

“I had fun,” Zuko mumbled. “Sorry your car got shit on, though.”

“Shat. Past tense.”

“Jet says it’s shit.”

“Jet told you birds were government spies.”

“Touché. He has his merits though.”

Sokka snorted again. “Go to sleep, Zuko.”

He was too tired to even notice Sokka hadn’t gotten any of his project materials out (he’d never even brought them along), only humming softly and letting himself relax against his lap. 

Zuko wasn’t really the type to fall asleep easily, but with Sokka, it came almost naturally. His friend was warm everywhere except in his fingertips, which were always cool like a balm whenever they accidentally brushed over skin. 

Time slipped away, leaving them to their own devices. Somewhere between the fine line of consciousness and slumber, Zuko distantly thought he could feel a soft pressure on his forehead, lingering there for a long moment. The way his mother always used to kiss him goodnight before tucking him in. 

Then, a gentle hand brushed his bangs aside and cupped his cheek, fingers just barely grazing over the edges of his scar. 

The touch was cool like foamy rain.

He didn’t mind it at all, leaning into the touch and snagging clumsy fingers against fabric. It felt nice. It felt like a thousand roads and songs and stories he’d memorized long ago.

It felt like coming home.

**Author's Note:**

> so that happened. HELLO!! kai here. you might know me as hi-raethia from tumblr. or you might not, that's all good. this is my first ever atla fic and i really hope you enjoyed it! please be nice to me sdlfjskj for i am very scared :') this was very self indulgent, and what do you mean i totally didn't project At All at any point in this fic. nope
> 
> but n e way thanks for reading if you did!! and please leave me a comment/kudos w your thoughts if you liked it n are so inclined! :00
> 
> foo foo car-ddlypoops is heavily inspired by my friend who named her car 'cartholomew' btw. she's a real one
> 
> alrightyyy that's about it. you can find me on tumblr @hi-raethia if you wanna chat/vibe. see you next time (maybe)! x


End file.
